The present invention pertains to a system and method for sorting demolition debris for reclamation and disposal purposes.
In the demolition of buildings and homes an enormous amount of debris is generated. Moreover, the debris is of a unique nature as compared to conventional waste problems, in that it consists primarily of wood, concrete, and other construction materials. The difficulty of handling and disposing of the debris has been a persistent problem.
The debris may be treated entirely as a waste product and hauled to a landfill for proper disposal. This disposal method, however, has several disadvantages. Due to the large volume of debris that may be accumulated, shipping and disposal costs alone could be prohibitive. The situation is made even more acute by the fact that most landfills are being moved to locations further from the city, which compounds the hauling expenses. Furthermore, demolition debris contains a large amount of material that may be reclaimed for various alternative, secondary uses. Hence, not only is mass disposal an expensive venture, it also deprives the community of recyclable materials and the demolition operator of profits that may be had by resale of the reclaimed materials.
In an effort to resolve the problem, the debris has heretofore been collectively dumped at a location where it could be manually hand sorted. While this alternative enables the demolition operator to reclaim reusable materials, and thereby substantially reduce the amount of materials needing to be disposed, the method itself is a very onerous, labor-intensive and time-consuming operation. Hence, while some limited benefits are hereby gained, a great need still exists for a better solution.
Many systems have been developed to handle and dispose of ordinary waste, such as municipal solid waste. These systems are involved with separating various components of the waste for reclamation and/or disposal purposes. However, the nature of the waste and the concerns of the users involved is so drastically different than those in the demolition field, that these systems are of no use to a demolition operator.